OF the few evidently misguided Fulham supporters to make the long journey to Merseyside over the weekend, a gaggle turned up dressed as children’s favourites Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

But rather than don such protective armour, the problem David Moyes must now address is encouraging his team to come out of their shells a lot earlier next season.

Once again, Everton are ending the Premier League marathon with a sprint finish.

Saturday’s romp over the sorry Cottagers was the third time in succession the Goodison outfit had struck four times in a top-flight game.

The last time that happened was way back in March 1964. And it seems just as long since they weren’t lamenting what might have been come the incessant April showers.

Everton remain as slow as a turtle in racing out of the blocks once the first whistle blows on a Premier League campaign. Next term, though, promises to be different. Not least with the irrepressible Nikica Jelavic leading the line.

When Moyes made the deadline day swoop for the Croatian in January, the Everton manager played down expectations by claiming the remainder of the season would merely act as an acclimatisation period for the new boy.

If that’s still the case, then opposing defenders beware. Jelavic continued his remarkable start to life in England with a brace to help Moyes’s men see off the admittedly feeble resistance of Fulham on Saturday.

It took his tally to 10 goals in as many starts since arriving from Rangers, with nine coming from his last seven outings.

With each trademark one-touch finish, the £5.5million spent to bring the 26-year-old south of the border looks more another canny piece of transfer market business from Moyes.

And Leon Osman, who reached a landmark 300th Everton appearance at the weekend, acknowledges the striker’s impact.

“Jelavic has brought obvious qualities to the team,” says Osman. “You can see he’s a goalscorer, and he’s doing that job incredibly well for us. It makes a big difference to have someone like that in your side, and you can feel the lift he gives around the place.

“We were all aware of what he could do playing in Scotland. The thing you can see in him is that ability to get goals.

“We go into the games with the opposition a little bit scared of him – or at least a little bit wary of him – because they know he can score goals, and it puts them on edge, they are having to look out for him.

“When that happens it can create more space for the rest of the team, and maybe that’s what is happening.”

Certainly, Everton’s passing and movement was too much for a Fulham team already eyeing their summer holidays.

January was a good month for Moyes with both permanent signings Jelavic and Darron Gibson influential behind a New Year improvement that sees Everton having lost only three of their last 20 games.

The pair will ensure Moyes’ men hit the ground running come August. But the most pressing engagement now for the Goodison manager must be to persuade the board to conjure the funds to make Steven Pienaar’s loan move from Tottenham Hotspur a permanent switch.

Even Jelavic had to cede Saturday’s starring role to the South African, who created three goals and again underlined how sorely he was missed in the FA Cup semi-final defeat to Liverpool.

With Fulham having never won a league match at Goodison and beaten on their last 18 top-flight visits – a run stretching back to 1960 – the handful of away fans turned up more in hope than expectation.

Even Cottagers manager Martin Jol, ill with a chest infection, failed to make the journey. His team’s defending wouldn’t have made the Dutchman feel any better.

The pattern for the game was set in the seventh minute. After a free-kick by Jelavic was clearly charged down by the arm of Pavel Pogrebnyak in the Fulham wall, the Croatian coolly converted from the spot.

To stretch the Ninja Turtles metaphor, the fumbling uselessness of their hapless foes Rocksteady and Bebop was then echoed by Fulham duo Damien Duff and Aaron Hughes.

Having moments earlier struck a post, Jelavic won a 16th-minute corner that was floated into the danger zone by Pienaar. But while the unmarked Marouane Fellaini gained sufficient purchase on his goalward header, Duff should have done a lot better in his failed attempts to clear off the line.

Hughes followed suit five minutes before the break. Although marginally offside, Jelavic raced on to Pienaar’s perceptive throughball before being pushed wide by Mark Schwarzer. The Croat, though, kept his cool and slotted home from an acute angle through the legs of the retreating Fulham goalkeeper and the laughable attempts of Hughes to stop the shot.

In between, Tim Howard produced a marvellous save to turn the ball on to the crossbar after Clint Dempsey’s shot deflected off John Heitinga.

That, though, was a rare Fulham threat, and Everton scored again on the hour when substitute Tim Cahill raced on to Pienaar’s deliciously chipped return pass and prodded the ball beyond Schwarzer.

Everton then took their foot off the gas and Moyes’ challenge now is to ensure the pedal is firmly to the metal in August.